SATURDAY, APRIL 27, 2024
Team Herald
PORVORIM: Health Minister Vishwajit Rane on Friday ruled out any COVID-19 related deaths due to oxygen shortage in the State, claiming that at “no point” the government hospitals ran out of oxygen supply.
In a written reply submitted on the Floor of the House, Rane admitted that due to a surge of COVID active cases in the second week of May, the demand for oxygen had suddenly shot up.
“But due to extra efforts put in by the Government, additional oxygen was made available and at no point in time, none of the Government hospitals in the State ran out of oxygen supplies,” Rane said responding to a question tabled by Congress MLA Alexio Reginaldo Lourenco.
“Therefore no deaths have been reported to have been caused due to no supplies of oxygen in any Government hospitals in the State till date,” he added further.
Rane said that new storage facilities for liquid oxygen have been created like Five kiloliters (KL) LMO Tank at South Goa District Hospital, 20KL tank at Goa Medical college and hospital and Super speciality block, respectively, 30KL tank at old GMC and five KL tank at North Goa District Hospital.
A buffer tank of 40 KL capacity is put in place at Binani industries.
Also, Pressure Swing Absorption (PSA) plants have been installed at GMC, South Goa and North Goa district hospitals and ESI Margao.
There are oxygen concentrators made available at GMC and Super speciality (161), North district hospital (20), Sub district hospital- Chicalim (25) and Ponda (77).
Apart from this, Oxygen is also procured from three local suppliers’ namely- M/s Govind Poy Oxygen; M/s Scoop Industries Pvt. Ltd; and M/s Oxy Nitro Cuncolim, Rane said.
The Minister also said that two LMO tanks of 500 ltrs each have been sanctioned by the Central government.
Further, Rane said that there are 41 deaths due to post COVID complications.
Responding to yet another question, Rane said that the Government has accorded in principle approval to hike salaries of staff working at COVID-19 facilities by 20 per cent and the details have been sought from the Institution.
He said that all Covid healthcare providers/workers are covered under Rs. 50 lakh insurance cover.
